Pay raised for road bond consultants

Consultants Prime Strategies and HNTB get new projects.

Williamson County commissioners unanimously approved new contracts— and some new pay rates— for consultants Prime Strategies and HNTB.

GEORGETOWN— Some will see zero change to their paychecks. Others will get raises as high as 96 percent.

With practically no discussion, the Williamson County commissioners court on Tuesday unanimously approved new contracts — and some new pay rates — for consultants Prime Strategies and HNTB.

The two firms manage millions of dollars’ worth of road bond projects.

Their pay will come out of the $275 million in bonds that voters approved for road projects last November, county spokeswoman Connie Watson said.

County officials had budgeted for the pay in the bond package, so there will still be enough money to do all the road projects that were planned.

Staff for Prime Strategies, who manage the road bond program and provide planning and design services, have not received a pay increase since 2009. HNTB staff, who handle construction and inspection, received their last raise in 2008.

The new pay levels ensure they’re being compensated at the market rate, said Bob Daigh, the county’s senior director of infrastructure.

“Times were hard in the economy, in Williamson County,” Daigh said. “We needed to tighten our belt, and we expected our consultants to tighten their belt also.”

Now, Prime Strategies and HNTB may request annual pay adjustments equal to the percentage increase in a regional Consumer Price Index. Between March 2013 and March 2014, for instance, that index increased by 1.5 percent.

Even before that, Prime Strategies and HNTB staff will start out with higher pay than they’ve gotten for the past five or more years.

The lead manager for Prime Strategies will receive a pay increase of about 96 percent, the first change in that position’s pay since 2001.

A senior engineer will see a

raise from the 2009 rate by around 89 percent and an administrator will get about a 72 percent increase. A project manager and planner would both get a 3 percent raise.

The four highest-earning staff for HNTB will make between 24 percent and 43 percent more than the past toppaid positions.

Three other positions will all get less than an 8 percent increase.

Daigh said consultants’ pay was negotiated with the two firms and based on the compensation for hundreds of other firms Williamson County has hired.

For instance, a 2013 contract for engineering services on an Interstate 35 frontage road provides a rate of $257.95 an hour for an HDR lead manager, compared with the $283.25 an hour a Prime Strategies lead manager would earn. An HDR engineer would make between $162 to $179 an hour un- der the same contract, while an HNTB project engineer earns $160.

“We believe the rates are prudent and fair,” Daigh said. He later added that Prime Strategies and HNTB don’t bill the county for some hours of work they put in.

Daigh described both firms as the cream of the crop of a highly competitive civil engineering market and said their experience with the county’s road bond program adds efficiency.

Citizens for Better Wil- liamson County Transportation, a political action committee that campaigned for the 2013 road bond proposition, received a $10,000 donation from HNTB and another $10,000 from an industry group that counts the company as a member.

Since 2011, HNTB has donated at least $1,000 to the campaign coffers of each member of the commissioners court.